Windows Server 2012Hyper-V Role introduces a new capability, Hyper-V Replica, as a built-in replication mechanism at a virtual machine (VM) level. Hyper-V Replica can asynchronously replicate a selected VM running at a primary site to a designated replica site across LAN/WAN

Hyper-V Replica Cluster

To Deploy a Hyper-v failovercluster as a replica site, must use Failover Cluster Manager to perform all Hyper-V Replica configurations and management. And first create a Hyper-V Replica Broker role.

In this case I have two clusters left and right. first go to the FCM and add a role

A Hyper-V Replica Broker is the focal point in this case. It queries the associated cluster database to realize which node is the correct one to redirect VM specific events such as Live Migration requests in a replica cluster.

Windows Active Directory domain is not a requirement for Hyper-V Replica which can also be implemented between workgroups and untrusted domains with a certificate-based authentication. Active Directory is however a requirement if involving a Hyper-v host which is part of a failover cluster, and in such case all Hyper-V hosts of a failover cluster must be in the same Active Directory domain with security enforced at the cluster level. I see sometimes that the broker creations is failing. The resource will not come online.

So During the creation of the cluster resource you will need a Name ( netbios ) and a IP. that is all. But remember as all cluster resources the cluster will create the items and not you Mister Admin. Just make sure Your DNS and cluster resource can create Items.

Now that my Resource is created and it is in my cluster In both Cluster I want to do Cross Replication

If you know Hyper-v then you would do the settings in the hyper-v settings but as you can see all the options are grayed out.

Go to the Cluster manager and right click on the broker select replication settings.

Same menu and configurable.

First enable the replica server in the first case I use Kerberos ( the easy one )

So don’t check the certificate based box.

here you can do give any server access to this replica easy to do and quick just fill in the path where the VM files need to be stored.

the other option is give only server that I want access. Well in my case I also used a * not that smart well now Only server in my domain can replicate and not every server. If you want to do a point to point connection just fill in the FQDN of the server.

once you have filled in the entry you can’t change the name only the storage path. Well that is fine for now.

Again we add the Resource this time a Virtual machine. Just make sure there is a VM in the Hyper-v

What we do here is make the VM high available and yes you could also replicate the VM right from the Hyper-v console.

but that does not make the VM High Available.

Selecting the VM Now we can start the machine and the VM is HA

We have the broker in place and a VM it is time to replicate.

Don’t use the broker on the current cluster you can’t replicate to your own cluster

All you have to know is the name of your cluster where the VM is placed

So I use the name of the cluster and see if it works, The wizard does see that there is a other broker in the left01 cluster and ask me to change that YES click on update

again Here can I choose Kerberos or certificate Rememeber I checked both boxes on the broker cluster resource If I made a choice there I could no choose here.

I go for……Kerberos

Check what VM disk are needed to replicate If you have a disk that holds stuff that si not needed for replications then unselect the disk here.

You can create multiple recovery points or just one and change the time currently you can set this from 1 hour to 12 hours. It is a wish to get this sooner.

and how to copy the stuff , over the network or with media. and the time to start.

I take the right now option

and If you want to change the settings just go to the settings of the VM and change it

In the Cluster or in the Hyper-v console you can see the status easy quick and fast replication.

In my next blog post I will do the same with a Certificate and you need extra steps for this.